arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Ido Efrat.
We prove a criterion for the mildness of a finitely presented pro-$p$ group $G$. It implies as a special case a cohomological mildness criterion via Massey products, generalizing results due to Schmidt and G\"artner. It subsumes Labute's non-singular circuit criterion. We further show connections with the triangle condition for the mildness of pro-$p$ right-angled Artin groups, due to Quadrelli, Snopce and Vannacci.
The Elementary Type Conjecture in Galois theory provides a concrete inductive description of the finitely generated maximal pro-$p$ Galois groups $G_F(p)$ of fields $F$ containing a root of unity of order $p$. We describe several variants of this conjecture, and prove various connections between these variants and other conjectures in field and Galois theory. We focus on a strong arithmetical variant of the conjecture, and its implications to the realization of pro-$p$ Demuskin groups as Galois groups.
Let $p$ be a prime number. For a field $F$ containing a root of unity of order $p$, let $H^\bullet(F)=H^\bullet(F,\mathbb{F}_p)$ be the mod-$p$ Galois cohomology graded $\mathbb{F}_p$-algebra of $F$. By the Norm Residue Theorem, $H^\bullet(F)$ is a purely quadratic graded-commutative algebra, and is therefore determined by the cup product $\cup\colon H^1(F)\times H^1(F)\to H^2(F)$. We prove that the class of all Galois cohomology algebras $H^\bullet(F)$ is cofinal in the class of all purely quadratic graded-commutative $\mathbb{F}_p$-algebras $A_\bullet$, in the following sense: For every $A_\bullet$ there exists $F$ such that the bilinear map $A_1\times A_1\to A_2$, which determines $A_\bullet$, embeds in the cup product bilinear map $\cup\colon H^1(F)\times H^1(F)\to H^2(F)$. We further provide examples of $\mathbb{F}_p$-bilinear maps which are not realizable by fields $F$ in this way. These are related to recent results by Snopce-Zalesskii and Blumer-Quadrelli-Weigel on the Galois theory of pro-$p$ right-angled Artin groups, as well as to a conjecture by Marshall on the possible axiomatization of quadratic form theory of fields.
The mod-2 arithmetic Milnor invariants, introduced by Morishita, provide a decomposition law for primes in canonical Galois extensions of $\mathbb{Q}$ with unitriangular Galois groups, and contain the Legendre and Redei symbols as special cases. Morishita further proposed a notion of mod-q arithmetic Milnor invariants, where q is a prime power, for number fields containing the q-th roots of unity and satisfying certain class field theory assumptions. We extend this theory from the number field context to general fields, by introducing a notion of a linking invariant for discrete valuations and orderings. We further express it as a Magnus homomorphism coefficient, and relate it to Massey product elements in Galois cohomology.
For a prime number $p$ and an integer $m\geq2$, we prove that the symbol length of all elements of $m$-fold Massey products in $H^2(G,\mathbb{F}_p)$, for pro-$p$ groups $G$ of elementary type, is bounded by $(m^2/4)+m$. Assuming the Elementary Type Conjecture, this applies to all finitely generated maximal pro-$p$ Galois groups $G=G_F(p)$ of fields $F$ which contain a root of unity of order $p$. More generally, we provide such a uniform bound for the symbol length of all pullbacks $ρ^*(\barω)$ of a given cohomology element $\barω\in H^n(\bar G,\mathbb{F}_p)$, where $\bar G$ is a finite $p$-group, $n\geq2$, and $ρ\colon G\to \bar G$ is a pro-$p$ group homomorphism.
For a prime number $p$ and a free pro-$p$ group $G$ on a totally ordered basis $X$, we consider closed normal subgroups $G^Φ$ of $G$ which are generated by $p$-powers of iterated commutators associated with Lyndon words in the alphabet $X$. We express the profinite cohomology group $H^2(G/G^Φ)$ combinatorically, in terms of the shuffle algebra on $X$. This partly extends existing results for the lower $p$-central and $p$-Zassenhaus filtrations of $G$.
We consider a field $F$ and positive integers $n$, $m$, such that $m$ is not divisible by $\mathrm{Char}(F)$ and is prime to $n!$. The absolute Galois group $G_F$ acts on the group $\mathbb{U}_n(\mathbb{Z}/m)$ of all $(n+1)\times(n+1)$ unipotent upper-triangular matrices over $\mathbb{Z}/m$ cyclotomically. Given $0,1\neq z\in F$ and an arbitrary list $w$ of $n$ Kummer elements $(z)_F$, $(1-z)_F$ in $H^1(G_F,μ_m)$, we construct in a canonical way a quotient $\mathbb{U}_w$ of $\mathbb{U}_n(\mathbb{Z}/m)$ and a cohomology element $ρ^z$ in $H^1(G_F,\mathbb{U}_w)$ whose projection to the superdiagonal is the prescribed list. This extends results by Wickelgren, and in the case $n=2$ recovers the Steinberg relation in Galois cohomology, proved by Tate.
For a list $\cal{L}$ of finite groups and for a profinite group $G$, we consider the intersection $T(G)$ of all open normal subgroups $N$ of $G$ with $G/N$ in $\cal{L}$. We give a cohomological characterization of the epimorphisms $π\colon S\to G$ of profinite groups (satisfying some additional requirements) such that $π[T(S)]=T(G)$. For $p$ prime, this is used to describe cohomologically the profinite groups $G$ whose $n$th term $G_{(n,p)}$ (resp., $G^{(n,p)}$) in the $p$-Zassenhaus filtration (resp., lower $p$-central filtration) is an intersection of this form. When $G=G_F$ is the absolute Galois group of a field $F$ containing a root of unity of order $p$, we recover as special cases results by Minac, Spira and the author, describing $G_{(3,p)}$ and $G^{(3,p)}$ as $T(G)$ for appropriate lists $\cal{L}$.
For $m\geq2$, let $F$ be a field of characteristic prime to $m$ and containing the roots of unity of order $m$, and let $G_F$ be its absolute Galois group. We show that the 3-fold Massey products $\langleχ_1,χ_2,χ_3\rangle$, with $χ_1,χ_2,χ_3\in H^1(G_F,\mathbb{Z}/m)$ and $χ_1,χ_3$ $\mathbb{Z}/m$-linearly independent, are non-essential. This was earlier proved for $m$ prime. Our proof is based on the study of unitriangular representations of $G_F$.
For a prime number $p$ and a free profinite group $S$ on the basis $X$, let $S_{(n,p)}$, $n=1,2,\ldots,$ be the $p$-Zassenhaus filtration of $S$. For $p>n$, we give a word-combinatorial description of the cohomology group $H^2(S/S_{(n,p)},\mathbb{Z}/p)$ in terms of the shuffle algebra on $X$. We give a natural linear basis for this cohomology group, which is constructed by means of unitriangular representations arising from Lyndon words.
For a prime number $p$, we give a new restriction on pro-$p$ groups $G$ which are realizable as the maximal pro-$p$ Galois group $G_F(p)$ for a field $F$ containing a root of unity of order $p$. This restriction arises from Kummer Theory and the structure of the maximal $p$-radical extension of $F$. We study it in the abstract context of pro-$p$ groups $G$ with a continuous homomorphism $θ\colon G\to1+p\mathbb{Z}_p$, and characterize it cohomologically, and in terms of 1-cocycles on $G$. This is used to produce new examples of pro-$p$ groups which do not occur as maximal pro-$p$ Galois groups of fields as above.
For a prime number $p$ and a free profinite group $S$ on the basis $X$, let $S^{(n,p)}$, $n=1,2,\ldots$ be the lower $p$-central filtration of $S$. For $p>n$, we give a combinatorial description of $H^2(S/S^{(n,p)},\mathbb{Z}/p)$ in terms of the Shuffle algebra on $X$.
For a prime number $p$ and a free profinite group $S$, let $S^{(n,p)}$ be the $n$th term of its lower $p$-central filtration, and $S^{[n,p]}$ the corresponding quotient. Using tools from the combinatorics of words, we construct a canonical basis of the cohomology group $H^2(S^{[n,p]},\mathbb{Z}/p)$, which we call the Lyndon basis, and use it to obtain structural results on this group. We show a duality between the Lyndon basis and canonical generators of $S^{(n,p)}/S^{(n+1,p)}$. We prove that the cohomology group satisfies shuffle relations, which for small values of $n$ fully describe it.
We make a systematic study of filtrations of a free group F defined as products of powers of the lower central series of F. Under some assumptions on the exponents, we characterize these filtrations in terms of the group algebra, the Magnus algebra of non-commutative power series, and linear representations by upper-triangular unipotent matrices. These characterizations generalize classical results of Grun, Magnus, Witt, and Zassenhaus from the 1930's, as well as later results on the lower p-central filtration and the p-Zassenhaus filtrations. We derive alternative recursive definitions of such filtrations, extending results of Lazard. Finally, we relate these filtrations to Massey products in group cohomology.
Let $p$ be a prime number, $F$ a field containing a root of unity of order $p$, and $G_F$ the absolute Galois group. Extending results of Hopkins, Wickelgren, Minac and Tan, we prove that the triple Massey product $H^1(G_F)^3\to H^2(G_F)$ contains $0$ whenever it is nonempty. This gives a new restriction on the possible profinite group structure of $G_F$.
Let $q=p^s$ be a prime power, $F$ a field containing a root of unity of order $q$, and $G_F$ its absolute Galois group. We determine a new canonical quotient $\mathrm{Gal}(F_{(3)}/F)$ of $G_F$ which encodes the full mod-$q$ cohomology ring $H^*(G_F,\mathbb{Z}/q)$ and is minimal with respect to this property. We prove some fundamental structure theorems related to these quotients. In particular, it is shown that when $q=p$ is an odd prime, $F_{(3)}$ is the compositum of all Galois extensions $E$ of $F$ such that $\mathrm{Gal}(E/F)$ is isomorphic to $\{1\}$, $\mathbb{Z}/p$ or to the nonabelian group $H_{p^3}$ of order $p^3$ and exponent $p$.
Let p be a prime number and F a field containing a root of unity of order p. We relate recent results on vanishing of triple Massey products in the mod-p Galois cohomology of F, due to Hopkins, Wickelgren, Minac, and Tan, to classical results in the theory of central simple algebras. For global fields, we prove a stronger form of the vanishing property.
A major difficult problem in Galois theory is the characterization of profinite groups which are realizable as absolute Galois groups of fields. Recently the Kernel $n$-Unipotent Conjecture and the Vanishing $n$-Massey Conjecture for $n\geq 3$ were formulated. These conjectures evolved in the last forty years as a byproduct of the application of topological methods to Galois cohomology. We show that both of these conjectures are true for odd rigid fields. This is the first case of a significant family of fields where both of the conjectures are verified besides fields whose Galois groups of $p$-maximal extensions are free pro-$p$-groups. We also prove the Kernel Unipotent Conjecture for Demushkin groups of rank 2, and establish a number of further related results.